JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley today announced that his office is investigating Equifax, in concert with other state attorneys general. The state attorneys general launched their investigation shortly following Equifax’s disclosure of the breach of consumer files earlier this summer.
“My office is working aggressively to protect the interests of Missourians in light of the recent Equifax breach,” Hawley said.
Tuesday, Attorney General Hawley and other state attorneys general further called on Equifax to stop using its own data breach as an opportunity to sell services to breach victims.
“We believe continuing to offer consumers a fee-based service in addition to Equifax’s free monitoring services will serve to only confuse consumers who are already struggling to make decisions on how to best protect themselves in the wake of this massive breach,” Hawley and other state attorneys general wrote. “Selling a fee-based product that competes with Equifax’s own free offer of credit monitoring services to victims of Equifax’s own data breach is unfair, particularly if consumers are not sure if their information was compromised.”
Attorney General Hawley has requested information about the circumstances that led to the breach, the reasons for the months-long delay between the breach and the company’s public disclosure, what protections the company had in place at the time of the breach, and how the company intends to protect consumers affected by the breach.